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Just four years since its inception, OSOM Products Inc. is closing down.
OSOM has struggled recently, with a lawsuit filed by one of its former employees making things worse. An internal communication has confirmed the business is reaching the road’s end, as Android Authority initially reported.
In 2020, the company emerged from the ashes of Essential, the smartphone setup founded by Android founder Andy Rubin. The fledgling smartphone maker never got off the ground due to the poor performance of its debut device, the Essential Phone.
Their problems were compounded by allegations of sexual misconduct leveled at Rubin from his time at Google.
Led by Jason Keats, who served as head of R&D at Essential, several executives and support staff came together to pursue a new project, ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’. From this point in 2020, OSOM was launched with the name reflecting a desire to pursue privacy-focused products.
OSOM would go on to secure a partnership with crypto platform Solana, in a collaboration that delivered its first Android smartphone but the relationship has not proved strong enough to deliver a successor device.
This has proved to be a fatal blow for OSOM, with other matters contributing to the downfall.
The Final Straw For OSOM
OSOM chief Keats has also had to contend with claims of financial misconduct directed against him, in a lawsuit filed by the company’s former chief privacy officer, Mary Stone Ross.
It has been alleged OSOM’s poor financial standing has been exacerbated by Keats’ lavish spending habits, which he has strongly denied and a statement said the “outlandish allegations” would be disproved in court.
The final straw was an internal meeting on Tuesday when employees were informed of the decision to close the company. Most of the workforce will be laid off by today (September 6) with a severance package, but a small number will remain to perform contractual obligations.
A statement from Keats confirmed, “OSOM is sadly shutting down.” He went on to say the new venture wasn’t able to attract customer interest in the phone, and they had reached the point where they would shift their focus to a new project.
And concluded that the difficult market climate in the consumer electronics industry made securing investment difficult. General operations of the business will end today.
